How many hours a day do you spend in kitchen?

[chicmom]

I am a SAHM and I have 3 children under 4 y.o. I make some stuff from scratch and we get take out about once a week. I am proabably in the kitchen a total of 3-4 hours a day. I wish that I could cut that in half.

[rightkindofme]

Enh... this is hard to estimate. On Sundays I tend to spend 10-12 hours in the kitchen making big complicated stuff to be eaten later in the week because my husband is here to help with kidlet. Some days I only spend about an hour all day because I am mostly reheating stuff from Sunday (it's a great system!) but at least a couple times a week I am still in the kitchen 3-4 hours over the course of the day. So with my Sunday averaged out I am probably at least in the kitchen 3 hours/day. Ew! That sounds like way too much time! You are so right.

My problem is I like to make really complicated foods. I have been making marinara from scratch lately and it takes me forever. I am also really into baking and it takes me a while. The results are worth it.

[1jooj]

I've been averaging a good 4-6 hours daily the past couple weeks. I spend about 3 cooking/cleaning up, but I have been preserving produce, so I am blanching and pickling and drying.

When winter comes, I hope to get this down to 2.5 or so, and I plan to accomplish this by cooking a lot of stews and soups, things that can be prepped, dumped and ignored. That and a weekly baking day.

I love to cook, but I have been feeling sort of trapped in the kitchen lately...

[sunnysandiegan]

I'd have to set a timer to really know. However, I am not particularly fond of the kitchen and DH does more cooking than I do. Our table is in that room, though, so I do eat in there and clean up several times a day. DD *loves* the kitchen, so I get dragged in there more often than I would prefer.

[newbymom05]

I'm a SAHM with 2 boys under 5 and three to four hours a week sounds about right to me too. I'm a scratch cooker but a fast one--clean up is what takes me the longest. It's really irritating--it takes me 30 minutes to cook it, 15 minutes for the family to eat it, and almost an hour to clean up! Last night I couldn't stand it and got take out and it STILL took me at least 30 mins to clean up! The only way I could cut back is to not cook so much. 3 meals a day adds up.

[spughy]

Originally Posted by newbymom05

I'm a SAHM with 2 boys under 5 and three to four hours a week sounds about right to me too. I'm a scratch cooker but a fast one--clean up is what takes me the longest. It's really irritating--it takes me 30 minutes to cook it, 15 minutes for the family to eat it, and almost an hour to clean up! Last night I couldn't stand it and got take out and it STILL took me at least 30 mins to clean up! The only way I could cut back is to not cook so much. 3 meals a day adds up.

That's funny, I'm almost the exact opposite - I'll take 3 hours to make something, but I can clean up the kitchen really fast. I stuff as much in the dishwasher as I can, wash the rest by hand quickly, clean off the counters and I'm done. BUT I clean a lot as I go - I use one knife and keep cleaning it off, sweep stuff into the compost as I go and limit myself to a small square of counter space.

Overall I probably spend about 3 hours a day in the kitchen, but it's time well spent... I love cooking.

[velochic]

I spend about 8 - 10 hours a day in the kitchen, but it's the hearth of the home and where I just "hang out". I spend about 5 - 6 hours/day every day on average actually being productive in the kitchen. Some days could be more, others could be less... in the winter it is less because I simmer our meals on our woodburning stove in the winter and that's in the dining/living room. This time includes canning, other means of preserving, cleaning produce from the garden, make-ahead meals, packing lunch, prep and actual cooking. We eat almost everything from scratch, so there is a lot of prep time included in that.

[TwinMom]

I spend about three hours a day cooking, but that's with the time averaged out. Like a pp, I spend most of my weekend prepping dinners for the week. I also spend about an hour each day cleaning up, but most of the dishes are done by my teenagers.

[henny penny]

We easily spend 4-5 hours a day in the kitchen. My toddler ds and I love to cook and it is our main indoor entertainment. We garden and raise livestock so spend a lot of time cooking from scratch. :

[LeighB]

Oh yeah, I easily spend 3 hours a day in the kitchen. More, like today, when I have some projects going- baking for other people, freezer meals, canning, etc.

[newbymom05]

Originally Posted by spughy

That's funny, I'm almost the exact opposite - I'll take 3 hours to make something, but I can clean up the kitchen really fast. I stuff as much in the dishwasher as I can, wash the rest by hand quickly, clean off the counters and I'm done. BUT I clean a lot as I go - I use one knife and keep cleaning it off, sweep stuff into the compost as I go and limit myself to a small square of counter space.

Overall I probably spend about 3 hours a day in the kitchen, but it's time well spent... I love cooking.

I don't know how I do it, but it always seems to take an hour! It's like the grocery store, no matter if my list is long or smallish, I'm there for 40 minutes. So how long does it take you to clean up after dinner? Maybe I'm exaggerating, I'm going to time myself. Oh, but wait--having a 4 y/o and a 15 mo old--I suspect they are my major time eaters, b/c I don't get 60 minutes straight at a time. Now it def takes my DH longer, and he doesn't even wipe down the counters!

[Ellien C]

Me? 20-30 minutes, but it's not even every day. Only the days I COOK an "elaborate" dinner as in something other than cereal or frozen chicken nuggets. Can you tell I WOH?

I think DH spends about 10-15 minutes in the morning getting his breakfast, making coffee and unloading the dishwasher.

Boy, with that little time you'd think our kitchen would be cleaner!

[Drummer's Wife]

I spend a good portion of my day in the kitchen - it's my favorite space in our home. Bit that doesn't mean I am cooking and cleaning in there for hrs, I spend time on MDC or reading a book or magazine, listening to music, etc. I love my kitchen I do hope to spend more time actually preparing and cooking, as I'm getting more into traditional foods and making things from scratch. If I had to guess, I'd say I spend an average of 6 hrs or so on the kitchen.

[Hazelnut]

There are days I feel like I don't leave it. It really fluctuates though. I'm not above occasional annie's mac and cheese, and there are just days where we eat more simply, they make fewer messes, I don't bake anything, and it's kind fo a nice break. I'm thinking that baking in bigger batches and freezing is one answer. I don't do that enough. Sometimes at night when I'm on a roll I do a lot at once and then I don't have to make certain things for a couple days.

[Katico]

Probably breaks down like this:

30 min-making my meals, DD's bottles

30 min -prepping supper

20 min - cooking supper

20 min - eating supper with DH

30 min - washing bottles

30 min - dishes, full clean-up

so, 2-3 hours per day.

A bit more on whatever day we grocery shop - I like to prep alot of things for the week, i.e. make a big salad, chop as much of the produce as possible, clean out the fridge every week, etc.

And then an extra hour on Wednesdays, that's the day I deep clean the kitchen - scrub the floor and stove, wipe down cabinets, clean the cat bowls, etc

[Alyantavid]

Depends. We're in the kitchen alot but actually cooking/cleaning time varies. I woh ft so dinner and clean up is under an hour a day. Breakfast/lunch are just a few minutes. On Sundays, I spend a good chunk of the day in there making things to eat for the week, mostly so I don't have to spend more time cooking and cleaning during the week.

In the summer, I'm in there more too, preserving, but I usually keep that for weekends or I'll blanch something while dinner's cooking, so it doesn't add a ton of time.

[sapphire_chan]

One way to cut time in the kitchen is make stuff that can cook on its own. For instance, a casserole is say, 30 minutes prep, 50 minutes cooking, but you don't have to be in the kitchen for it to cook.

[deditus]

Definitely in the 3-4 hour range (and dh does dinner clean-up), we are gfcf so I make everything from scratch. This is w/o doing any extra preserving like I used to do. I need a new canner (mine is way to big to use on our apt size stove) and we no longer have a chest freezer, so I am debating on what to do for some extra food storage.